This week, Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan eulogizes his late father. His words are touching, but they also serve to remind us of what we should be striving for every day; the quote that jumped out at me was this one:
When I remember my late father, I don’t remember a man defined by a single place or nationality or tradition. I remember a man whose life was lived across continents, who saw himself as a bridge between worlds and made no apology for that. He was a man who happily defied the lazy questions thrown around these days by politicians and pundits: are you British or are you Indian? are you Western or are you Eastern? are you secular or are you Muslim? He was all of the above. He was proof positive that our identities are not settled, not static, not singular. You can be a European, British, Indian, Hyderabadi, Shia, Muslim Londoner, as my father was. You don’t have to choose in a truly multicultural Britain.
This rather forcefully reminds me of a Daily Show interview that Trevor Noah did many years ago with Dominican-born American writer Junot Diaz. Trevor notes that he came to America at 6, and became a citizen at 20. “Like, how did you find that balance,” he asks, “between going ‘I’m from the Dominican Republic, but I’m also American’?” To which Diaz responds:
What really helps is to think of it not as some weird, bizarre buffet where you only get one damn choice. That’s, like, a sinister, sadistic buffet. How ‘bout: you get to choose more than one thing? that you could literally be Dominican, and from New Jersey, and there’s no conflict. Fill the damn plate, yo. Fill the plate.
I think of that metaphor sometimes when I look at the people currently in charge of our country. Trump and his MAGA crowd are like people who only put one thing on their plates, or, if they get daring and put two or three, they’re not allowed to touch. And I remember that quote from Junot Diaz, and I think: what a sad, sinister, sadistic buffet. They don’t even know how much they’re missing out. They’ve always eaten the same thing, for every meal, every day, for their whole lives, and we’ll never be able to convince them that there’s other foods out there, other experiences, other simple pleasures. And we mustn’t let them make us forget the variety and diversity that is what made them so mad in the first place.
Other things you need to know this week:
- Another excellent week in review from Adam Kinzinger.
- Legal Eagle’s military contributor, Spencer the Scowl Owl (a former Marine and JAG officer) had two important videos this week, both talking to Senator Mark Kelly: in the first, he talks about Trump’s threats against the Senator, and the second covers the illegal boat strikes.
- Adam Kinzinger also weighed in on what’s all the fuss about murdering “drug dealers”.
- Heck, even SNL got in on the action, with this week’s cold open seeing a pretty good Hegseth impression from Colin Jost, as well as some references to Trump’s increasing tendency to drift off to sleep on camera.
- Speaking of which, the Even More News crew has some even more pointed thoughts on Sleepy Don.
- In an emergency update, the ladies of Strict Scrutiny deliver a blistering rebuke of the latest Supreme Court debacle. Personally, I was utterly unsurprised by the decision: this court has proved several times over that they can justify any travesty of justice thrown at them, as long as it serves Trump’s agenda.
This week’s Weekly Show was an interview with two historians, Joanne Freeman of Yale and Allen C. Guelzo from the University of Florida. And it’s an excellent discussion about immigration, and who has been considered white (or not) throughout our history, and you should totally watch the whole thing. But I think my favorite part comes (as it often does) during the producer segment at the end. Often the zinger is delivered by producer and fact-checker Gillian Spear, but occasionally Jon himself gets in a good one. This week, when Gillian points out that Trump keeps claiming that he doesn’t know who he’s pardoned, Jon responds:
By the way: what a six-year-old he is. Whenever he gets confronted, his responses are either, “I don’t know,” or “you’re stupid!” I have children. I’m very familiar with these dodges.So your note of hope for this week is to remember that, as scary as these people are, they’re basically just toddlers playing at fascism. Those of us who have had toddlers know what terrifying tyrants they can be, but I think we can stand up to toddlers. Hopefully.